Sunday, November 23, 2008

Free of Bush

My local paper has a weekly column by well-know raconteur Garrison Keillor. His tales about Lake Wobegon examine the sometimes poignant, sometimes funny, idiosyncrasies of small-town America. But for the past few years his weekly articles in the local paper were nonfictional vents about the Stupid, Evil, Lying Bush Regime. One could feel the hate dripping from his columns, as Bush's existence clearly made him very angry. Now, a couple weeks after the election, his column is about the standard fare of novelists: observations about very picayune issues, nothing about politics. You sense a great cloud has lifted, and he can resume his vocation again, forgetting about national politics now that Chimpitler McWalliburton is a lame duck.

Now, Bush's last 4 years generated very little actual legislation. It is hard to see how Bush was oppressing so many, but a lot of people, especially intellectuals like Keillor, found his presence to be intolerable on a daily basis. It is strange the degree to which the symbolism of someone putatively in charge, but who actually does not affect your daily life much, means so much to so many.